Truth and numbers
The annual high school rankings have been rolled out by the good people at U.S. News and World Report and much to the chagrin of our fellow citizens who are fond of national rankings, less than three dozen schools on the list of 1,591 were from North Carolina. That was a good bit different from rankings by Newsweek magazine released earlier this year.
The main difference between the two magazines’ methods is telling.
Around here, the Newsweek rankings are typically received with glee because they have traditionally used SAT scores and percentage of students taking Advance Placement tests as their top (as in, just about only) criteria. We do pretty well by that standard.
But U.S. News and World Report added a couple of other categories, namely the achievement of low-income and minority students. The magazine’s editor rightly explained that in order to judge a school properly you have to include the performance of all students, not just those already top of their class.
Anyone paying attention to the struggles of our school system over the past couple of decades knows that we’re far from where we should be when judged by that standard. This is a reminder that rankings are a double-edged sword.
The criteria with which we judge our schools should be of, by and for the community
Truth and fear
There is no direct connection among the recent murders in Orange and Chatham counties. The victims were of different race, circumstances and socio-economic status. The crimes against them ranged from a brutal bludgeoning to an alleged domestic homicide to a break-in that may be linked to drugs. Possible motives differ as well — greed, drugs and rage.
Still, two elderly women are dead as are a longtime Cedar Grove resident and a woman who was in the eighth month of her pregnancy.
Unfortunately, we are not unaccustomed to such events around here. But coming on the heels of each other as they have, these killings have got many worried about their safety.
One common reaction was that posed by a neighbor of one of the victims who lamented that she used to be able to leave her doors unlocked at night.
Therein lies a hint at the disconnect between the way crime is portrayed in the media and our popular culture and the reality of how most capital cases really go down.
Like everywhere else in this country, we have seen awful crimes committed by people unknown to their victims. But also like everywhere else, most murders here involved people who knew each other. According to the FBI’s most recent study on homicide, last year there were close to 15,000 murders in the United States. Of 8,240 cases where the perpetrator was identified, 6,335 murders were committed by a family member or an acquaintance of the victim.
The real world is far less filled with the kind of random violence depicted every night on the tube. And the number of crimes really solved by brilliant scientist/cops in sharp clothes is dwarfed by the number solved each week on our most popular crime dramas. Fear sells. But it should not be allowed to get the better of us.